A liquid crystal display device using a liquid crystal composition is widely utilized for a display of a watch, a calculator, a word processor or the like. The liquid crystal display devices utilize refractive index anisotropy, dielectric anisotropy or the like of a liquid crystal compound. As an operating mode in the liquid crystal display device, a mode mainly using at least one polarizing plate to display an image is known, such as a phase change (PC), twisted nematic (TN), super twisted nematic (STN), bistable twisted nematic (BTN), electrically controlled birefringence (ECB), optically compensated bend (OCB), in-plane switching (IPS), or vertical alignment (VA) mode. Furthermore, a research has been recently conducted actively into a mode for developing electric birefringence by applying an electric field in an optically isotropic liquid crystal phase (Patent literature Nos. 1 to 16, Non-patent literature Nos. 1 to 3).
Furthermore, a proposal has been made for a wavelength variable filter, a wavefront control device, a liquid crystal lens, an aberration correction device, an aperture control device, an optical head device, or the like utilizing electric birefringence in a blue phase as one of the optically isotropic liquid crystal phases (Patent literature Nos. 10 to 12).
A classification based on a driving mode in the device includes a passive matrix (PM) and an active matrix (AM). The passive matrix (PM) is further classified into static, multiplex and so forth, and the AM is further classified into a thin film transistor (TFT), a metal insulator metal (MIM) and so forth.